Check back soon
Once posts are published, you’ll see them here.
For those of you that don't know, NPC stands for none playable character and make up people that the player interacts with. Typical examples of NPCs include a main characters best friend, a begrudging shop keeper, that creepy old man with the ancient scroll in the pub and those malicious bandits in the forest.
Usually NPC deaths happen 1 of 2 ways. They can happen in gameplay when either they die through environmental effects or by the hand of the player. When this happens the character is often an enemy or obstacle of some sort or, in the case of many of Skyrim's city based NPCs, completely unnecessary to the plot. The second way is through story arcs or planned deaths where a character dies by part of some event such as a dragon attack or an assassination. Characters with planned deaths typically die to push the plot forward, either by providing you with motivation or forcing you out of you comfort zone. Usually when a character dies this way you can see it coming and it takes place midway through a game, Characters that are just introduced that die either die immediately or long after you have gotten to know them.
With this in mind there are very few times when a developed character or characters dies soon after being introduced. In this post I'm hoping to provide an alternative or, at least, slightly different take on typical character deaths.
To create this death we need a setup, imagine a world set in space where multiple alien races have convened to make organisation of sorts. You, the main character are part of a race of sentient robots that were recently recognised by the federation as a sovereign race. As such the greatest warrior from your race (you) have been sent to the capital to join the group of other great warriors. As you arrive the counsel is attacked and the group is split up. The tutorial would have you independently moving around the ship dealing with enemies in your way. At the end of the level you would meet up with the human, a charismatic leader who is introduced via cutscene leading his troops into battle. After this levels consist of you moving through the capital meeting the other members of the group and adding them to your squad. You learn back stories and their characters have some straight forward introduction and interactions with the other characters. The final mission of the capital would have you and your full group of legendary comrades running through waves of enemies, ending with a cutscene in which each of you show your individual specialty ending with a shot of all of you and the title. After that the cutscene would continue, everyone would board onto this massive ship and you would be the last person on, as you climb up the ramp, the ship explodes killing everyone onboard, getting up from the shockwave you would be damaged and dysfunctional, you would go around seeing the dead and dying that made up this mythic group and have to push past them. You would then make your way off of the ship by an alternant means, climbing into a small ship and convincing a crew of deserters to suit your needs. This would act like many old starts in that it gives you a glimpse of what could be achieved in the game then takes it away from you. But it would do so in a unique way that would set the tone for a dark and hard game. The legendary warriors would not be forgotten though, you could meet people who served under them in the game world or read books about there daring do. All of this would help to make their deaths more meaning full, instead of just another shocking begining to a game.